Fabric Raised Beds Versus Fabric Pots

Choosing Your Planter Type

It seems like the answer to so many of life’s questions is: “It depends.” Unfortunately, the quandary of raised beds vs. pots is no different. There are so many different methods of growing plants, and it really depends on your space and your growing method.

We’ve gathered the points we think are most compelling in favor of each choice. Hopefully this will help you make your decision on what’s best for your grow.

Reasons to Choose Raised Beds

Maximize Your Space

Get more plants per square footage with raised beds. This is the most popular reason people have switched to raised beds for their greenhouses and indoor grows.

Maintain Better Soil Microbiology

Many methods of growing, including “living soil” or “no-till” growing methods, are based on having increased organic soil microbiology. Raised beds provide an optimum scenario for this because your soil takes longer to dry out. Supporting a thriving microbiology is very hard in small pots – anything less than 45 gallons of soil will dry out rapidly. If your root zone completely dries out, you have potentially killed some valuable microbes, taking a step backwards.

Save Water

The bigger your soil mass, the longer the moisture retention. You will have to water smaller pots more often than you would a raised bed.

Get Bigger Plants and Higher Yields

In a raised bed, there is more room for the roots to expand! Each plant’s root system can interweave with the others for overall larger root growth. And bigger roots mean bigger plants.

Potentially Save on Materials and Labor Cost

Smaller pots can require transplanting, which takes time and more pots. Also, each individual root system in a fabric pot might require its own unique care and maintenance. The plants in a raised bed share a root system and soil mass and can help take care of themselves like a community.

Grassroots Fabric Pots

Jim

I’m looking for a fabric bed that can be used for aquaculture. It would need to allow for water to penetrate the fabric like a filter, but keep the plants inside the bed. I would need to insert 3″ floats in the top with the 1″ pipes inside the floats (think foam pool NOODLEs). Can you custom build such a fabric bed? Would it help up when submerged in water 24/7?